Steam & Excursion > Unprecedented flood of oil

Texas & Pacific put out a monthly magazine T&P Topics which contained stories about the railroad and its employees.  The August 1947 cover of 2-10-4 #625 entering Dallas would not be recognized today since the whole area is built up. Traces of  trackage can be seen in the large signal bridge on the right in the picture and the Dallas Union Terminal trackage is just out of sight  to the right.

The  article  described  how an unprecedented flood of oil from the Permian Basin in west Texas had engulfed the railroad.  Automobiles were becoming plentiful again and the demand for oil east of the Mississippi river to fuel all that had inundated the T&P with sold oil trains.  In the basin as soon as a loaded train left the oil loading docks and empty would pull right in.


So much was the traffic that T&P had to hire  142 more trainmen to handle the traffic which for 2 years amounted to more than that shipped in WWII.  As fast as the traffic appeared, it disappeared the same way late in 1949 when pipelines began handling the flow of oil.  But, T&P would continue to haul some oil traffic into the early  and mid 1950's.  Today along the same west Texas track oil is again appearing in consists from that same area.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/15 14:27 by tomstp.

---

History repeating itself?

Wonder if they had big accidents like we are experiencing?

Posted from iPhone

There was an accident in Abilene Tx  on a train which had a bunch of oil cars in it along with  boxcar  wallboard loads picked up in Sweetwater Tx. Several cars of oil caught fire but no explosion.  Hobos stole waste packing out of boxcar journals to start camp fires with in the winter.   Cars without  lube would burn out an axel about Abilene.  It was a problem T&P fought for years causing the first hotbox detector ever to be installed just west of Abilene.

One night in 1949 in Ranger Tx there was a small yard filled with LPG tank cars and a derailment in the yard during switching  caused one car to be pierced a started one hell of a fire that could be seen for miles. .  No deaths though.

Defective_Detector Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wonder if they had big accidents like we are
> experiencing?

Are we havig more tha the one that is endlessly repeated in the news media? I haven't been keeping track.
 

lwilton Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Defective_Detector Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Wonder if they had big accidents like we are
> > experiencing?
>
> Are we havig more tha the one that is endlessly
> repeated in the news media? I haven't been keeping
> track.
>  

Four in February and March, according to the AP. I'd say that's a rather significant number.  There were a couple in the last two months of 2014, too.